Chapter IX: Part 9

_Machine-made Lace._--We have already seen that a technical peculiarity in making needlepoint lace is that a single thread and needle are alone used to form the pattern, and that the buttonhole stitch and other loopings which can be worked by means of a needle and thread mark a distinction between lace made in this manner and lace made on the pillow. For the process of pillow lace making a series of threads are in constant employment, plaited and twisted the one with another. A buttonhole stitch is not producible by it. The Leavers lace machine does not make either a buttonhole stitch or a plait. An essential principle of this machine-made work is that the threads are twisted together as in stocking net. The Leavers lace machine is that generally in use at Nottingham and Calais. French ingenuity has developed improvements in this machine whereby laces of delicate thread are made; but as fast as France makes an improvement England follows with another, and both countries virtually maintain an equal position in this branch of industry. The number of threads brought into operation in a Leavers machine is regulated by the pattern to be produced, the threads being of two sorts, beam or warp threads and bobbin or weft threads. Upwards of 8880 are sometimes used, sixty pieces of lace being made simultaneously, each piece requiring 148 threads--100 beam threads and 48 bobbin threads. The ends of both sets of threads are fixed to a cylinder upon which as the manufacture proceeds the lace becomes wound. The supply of the beam or warp threads is held upon reels, and that of the bobbins or weft threads is held in bobbins. The beam or warp thread reels are arranged in frames or trays beneath the stage, above which and between it and the cylinder the twisting of the bobbin or weft with beam or warp threads takes place. The bobbins containing the bobbin or weft threads are flattened in shape so as to pass conveniently between the stretched beam or warp threads. Each bobbin can contain about 120 yds. of thread. By most ingenious mechanism varying degrees of tension can be imparted to warp and weft threads as required. As the bobbins or weft threads pass like pendulums between the warp threads the latter are made to oscillate, thus causing them to become twisted with the bobbin threads. As the twistings take place, combs passing through both warp and weft threads compress the twistings. Thus the texture of the clothing or _toilé_ in machine-made lace may generally be detected by its ribbed appearance, due to the compressed twisted threads. Figs. 47 and 48 are intended to show effects obtained by varying the tensions of weft and warp threads. For instance, if the weft, as threads b, b, b, b in fig. 47, be tight and the warp thread slack, the warp thread a will be twisted upon the weft threads. But if the warp thread a be tight and the weft threads b, b, b, b, be slack, as in fig. 48, then the weft threads will be twisted on the warp thread. At the same time the twisting in both these cases arises from the conjunction of movements given to the two sets of threads, namely, an oscillation or movement from side to side of the beam or warp threads, and the swinging or pendulum-like movement of the bobbin or weft threads between the warp threads. Fig. 49 is a diagram of a sectional elevation of a lace machine representing its more essential parts. E is the cylinder or beam upon which the lace is rolled as made, and upon which the ends of both warp and weft threads are fastened at starting. Beneath are w, w, w, a series of trays or beams, one above the other, containing the reels of the supplies of warp threads; c, c represent the slide bars for the passage of the bobbin b with its thread from k to k, the landing bars, one on each side of the rank of warp threads; s, t are the combs which take it in turns to press together the twistings as they are made. The combs come away clear from the threads as soon as they have pressed them together and fall into positions ready to perform their pressing operations again. The contrivances for giving each thread a particular tension and movement at a certain time are connected with an adaptation of the Jacquard system of pierced cards. The machine lace pattern drafter has to calculate how many holes shall be punched in a card, and to determine the position of such holes. Each hole regulates the mechanism for giving movement to a thread. Fig. 54 displays a piece of hand-made Valenciennes (Ypres) lace and fig. 55 a corresponding piece woven by the machine. The latter shows the advantage that can be gained by using very fine gauge machines, thus enabling a very close imitation of the real lace to be made by securing a very open and clear _réseau_ or net, such as would be made on a coarse machine, and at the same time to keep the pattern fine and solid and standing out well from the net, as is the case with the real lace, which cannot be done by using a coarse gauge machine. In this example the machine used is a 16 point (that is 32 carriages to the inch), and the ground is made half gauge, that is 8 point, and the weaving is made the full gauge of the machine, that is 16 point. Fig. 56 gives other examples of hand- and machine-made Valenciennes lace. The machine-made lace (b) imitating the real (a) is made on a 14-point machine (that is 28 carriages to the inch), the ground being 7 point and the pattern being full gauge or 14 point. Although the principle in these examples of machine work is exactly the same, in so far that they use half gauge net and full gauge clothing to produce the contrast as mentioned above, the fabrication of these two examples is quite different, that in fig. 55 being an example of tight bobbins or weft, and slack warp threads as shown in fig. 47. Whereas the example in fig. 56 is made with slack bobbins or weft threads and tight warp threads as in fig. 48. In fig. 57 is a piece of hand-made lace of stout thread, very similar to much Cluny lace made in the Auvergne and to the Buckinghamshire "Maltese" lace. Close to it are specimens of lace (figs. 58 and 59) made by the new patent circular lace machine of Messrs Birkin of Nottingham. This machine although very slow in production actually reproduces the real lace, at a cost slightly below that of the hand-made lace. In another branch of lace-making by machinery, mechanical ingenuity, combined with chemical treatment, has led to surprising results (figs. 53 and 50). Swiss, German and other manufacturers use machines in which a principle of the sewing-machine is involved. A fine silken tissue is thereby enriched with an elaborately raised cotton or thread embroidery. The whole fabric is then treated with chemical mordants which, whilst dissolving the silky web, do not attack the cotton or thread embroidery. A relief embroidery possessing the appearance of hand-made raised needlepoint lace is thus produced. Figs. 60 and 61 give some idea of the high quality to which this admirable counterfeit has been brought.

Collections of hand-made lace chiefly exist in museums and technical institutions, as for instance the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and museums at Lyons, Nuremberg, Berlin, Turin and elsewhere. In such places the opportunity is presented of tracing in chronological sequence the stages of pattern and texture development.

_Literature._--The literature of the art of lace-making is
considerable. The series of 16th- and 17th-century lace pattern-books,
of which the more important are perhaps those by F. Vinciolo (Paris,
1587), Cesare Vecellio (Venice, 1592), and Isabetta Catanea Parasole
(Venice, 1600), not to mention several kindred works of earlier and
later date published in Germany and the Netherlands, supplies a large
field for exploration. Signor Ongania of Venice published a limited
number of facsimiles of the majority of such works. M. Alvin of
Brussels issued a brochure in 1863 upon these patterns, and in the
same year the marquis Girolamo d'Adda contributed two bibliographical
essays upon the same subject to the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_ (vol. xv.
p. 342 seq., and vol. xvii. p. 421 seq.). In 1864 Cavaliere A. Merli
wrote a pamphlet (with illustrations) entitled _Origine ed uso delle
trine a filo di rete_; Mons F. de Fertiault compiled a brief and
rather fanciful _Histoire de la dentelle_ in 1843, in which he
reproduced statements to be found in Diderot's _Encyclopédie_,
subsequently quoted by Roland de la Platière. The first _Report of the
Department of Practical Art_ (1853) contains a "Report on Cotton
Print Works and Lace-Making" by Octavius Hudson, and in the first
_Report of the Department of Science and Art_ are some "Observations
on Lace." Reports upon the International Exhibitions of 1851 (London)
and 1867 (Paris), by M. Aubry, Mrs Palliser and others contain
information concerning lace-making. The most important work first
issued upon the history of lace-making is that by Mrs Bury Palliser
(_History of Lace_, 1869). In this work the history is treated rather
from an antiquarian than a technical point of view; and wardrobe
accounts, inventories, state papers, fashionable journals, diaries,
plays, poems, have been laid under contribution with surprising
diligence. A new edition published in 1902 presents the work as
entirely revised, rewritten and enlarged under the editorship of M.
Jourdain and Alice Dryden. In 1875 the Arundel Society brought out
_Ancient Needlepoint and Pillow Lace_, a folio volume of permanently
printed photographs taken from some of the finest specimens of ancient
lace collected for the International Exhibition of 1874. These were
accompanied by a brief history of lace, written from the technical
aspect of the art, by Alan S. Cole. At the same time appeared a bulky
imperial 4to volume by Seguin, entitled _La Dentelle_, illustrated
with wood-cuts and fifty photo-typographical plates. Seguin divides
his work into four sections. The first is devoted to a sketch of the
origin of laces; the second deals with pillow laces, bibliography of
lace and a review of sumptuary edicts; the third relates to
needle-made lace; and the fourth contains an account of places where
lace has been and is made, remarks upon commerce in lace, and upon the
industry of lace makers. Without sufficient conclusive evidence Seguin
accords to France the palm for having excelled in producing
practically all the richer sorts of laces, notwithstanding that both
before and since the publication of his otherwise valuable work, many
types of them have been identified as being Italian in origin.
Descriptive catalogues are issued of the lace collections at South
Kensington Museum, at the Science and Art Museum, Dublin, and at the
Industrial Museum, Nuremberg. In 1881 a series of four Cantor Lectures
on the art of lace-making were delivered before the Society of Arts by
Alan S. Cole.

_A Technical History of the Manufacture of Venetian Laces_, by G. M.
Urbani de Gheltof, with plates, was translated by Lady Layard, and
published at Venice by Signor Ongania. The _History of Machine-wrought
Hosiery and Lace Manufacture_ (London, 1867), by Felkin, has already
been referred to. There is also a technological essay upon lace made
by machinery, with diagrams of lace stitches and patterns
(_Technologische Studien im sächsischen Erzgebirge_, Leipzig, 1878),
by Hugo Fischer. In 1886 the Libraire Renouard, Paris, published a
_History of Point d'Alençon_, written by Madame G. Despierres, which
gives a close and interesting account of the industry, together with a
list, compiled from local records, of makers and dealers from 1602
onwards.--_Embroidery and Lace: their manufacture and history from the
remotest antiquity to the present day_, by Ernest Lefebure, lace-maker
and administrator of the École des Arts Décoratifs, translated and
enlarged with notes by Alan S. Cole, was published in London in 1888.
It is a well-illustrated handbook for amateurs, collectors and general
readers.--Irish laces made from modern designs are illustrated in a
_Renascence of the Irish Art of Lace-making_, published in 1888
(London).--_Anciennes Dentelles belges formant la collection de feue
madame Augusta Baronne Liedts et données au Musée de Grunthuis à
Bruges_, published at Antwerp in 1889, consists of a folio volume
containing upwards of 181 phototypes--many full size--of fine
specimens of lace. The ascriptions of country and date of origin are
occasionally inaccurate, on account of a too obvious desire to credit
Bruges with being the birthplace of all sorts of lace-work, much of
which shown in this work is distinctly Italian in style.--The
_Encyclopaedia of Needlework_, by Thérèse de Dillmont-Dornach (Alsace,
1891), is a detailed guide to several kinds of embroidery, knitting,
crochet, tatting, netting and most of the essential stitches for
needlepoint lace. It is well illustrated with wood-cuts and process
blocks.--An exhaustive history of Russian lace-making is given in _La
Dentelle russe_, by Madame Sophie Davidoff, published at Leipzig,
1895. Russian lace is principally pillow-work with rather heavy
thread, and upwards of eighty specimens are reproduced by
photo-lithography in this book.

A short account of the best-known varieties of _Point and Pillow
Lace_, by A. M. S. (London, 1899), is illustrated with typical
specimens of Italian, Flemish, French and English laces, as well as
with magnified details of lace, enabling any one to identify the
plaits, the twists and loops of threads in the actual making of the
fabric.--_L'Industrie des tulles et dentelles mécaniques dans le
Pas de Calais_, 1815-1900, by Henri Hénon (Paris, 1900), is an
important volume of over 600 pages of letterpress, interspersed with
abundant process blocks of the several kinds of machine nets and laces
made at Calais since 1815. It opens with a short account of the Arras
hand-made laces, the production of which is now almost extinct. The
book was sold for the benefit of a public subscription towards the
erection of a statue in Calais to Jacquard, the inventor of the
apparatus by means of which all figured textile fabrics are
manufactured. It is of some interest to note that machine net and
lace-making at Calais owe their origin to Englishmen, amongst whom "le
sieur R. Webster arrivé à St Pierre-les-Calais en Décembre, 1816,
venant d'Angleterre, est l'un des premiers qui ont établi dans la
communauté une fabrique de tulles," &c. _Lace-making in the Midlands:
Past and Present_, by C. C. Channer and M. E. Roberts (London, 1900)
upon the lace-making industry in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and
Northamptonshire contains many illustrations of laces made in these
counties from the 17th century to the present time. _Musée
rétrospectif. Dentelles à l'exposition universelle internationale de
1900 à Paris. Rapport de Mons. E. Lefebvre_ contains several good
illustrations, especially of important specimens of Point de France of
the 17th and 18th centuries. _Le Point de France et les autres
dentelliers au XVII^e et au XVIII^e siècles_, by Madame Laurence de
Laprade (Paris, 1905), brings together much hitherto scattered
information throwing light upon operations in many localities in
France where the industry has been carried on for considerable
periods. The book is well and usefully illustrated.

See also _Irische Spitzen_ (30 half-tone plates), with a short
historical introduction by Alan S. Cole (Stuttgart, 1902); _Pillow
Lace_, a practical handbook by Elizabeth Mincoff and Margaret S.
Marriage (London, 1907); _The Art of Bobbin Lace_, a practical
text-book of workmanship, &c., by Louisa Tebbs (London, 1907);
_Antiche trine italiane_, by Elisa Ricci (Bergamo, 1908), well
illustrated; _Seven Centuries of Lace_, by Mrs John Hungerford Pollen
(London and New York, 1908), very fully illustrated. (A. S. C.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The prevalence of fashion in the above-mentioned sorts of
embroidery during the 16th century is marked by the number of
pattern-books then published. In Venice a work of this class was
issued by Alessandro Pagannino in 1527; another of a similar nature,
printed by Pierre Quinty, appeared in the same year at Cologne; and
La _Fleur de la science de pourtraicture et patrons de broderie,
façon arabicque et ytalique_, was published at Paris in 1530. From
these early dates until the beginning of the 17th century
pattern-books for embroidery in Italy, France, Germany and England
were published in great abundance. The designs contained in many of
those dating from the early 16th century were to be worked for
costumes and hangings, and consisted of scrolls, arabesques, birds,
animals, flowers, foliage, herbs and grasses. So far, however, as
their reproduction as laces might be concerned, the execution of
complicated work was involved which none but practised lace-workers,
such as those who arose a century later, could be expected to
undertake.

[2] A very complete account of how these conditions began and
developed at Alençon, for instance, is given in Madame Despierre's
_Histoire du Point d'Alençon_ (1886) to which is appended an
interesting and annotated list of merchants, designers and makers of
Point d'Alençon.

[3] _E.g._ The family of Camusat at Alençon from 1602 until 1795.

[4] The picture, however, as Seguin has pointed out, was probably
painted some thirty years later, and by Jean Matsys.

[5] See the poetical skit _Révolte des passements et broderies_,
written by Mademoiselle de la Tousse, cousin of Madame de Sévigné, in
the middle of the 17th century, which marks the favour which foreign
laces at that time commanded amongst the leaders of French fashion.
It is fairly evident too that the French laces themselves, known as
"bisette," "gueuse," "campane" and "mignonette," were small and
comparatively insignificant works, without pretence to design.

[6] Useful information has been communicated to the writer of the
present article on lace by Mrs B. Wishaw of Seville.

[7] See Felkin's _Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures_.

[8] After 1650 the lace-workers at Alençon and its neighbourhood
produced work of a daintier kind than that which was being made by
the Venetians. As a rule the hexagonal _bride_ grounds of Alençon
laces are smaller than similar details in Venetian laces. The average
size of a diagonal taken from angle to angle in an Alençon (or
so-called Argentan) hexagon was about one-sixth of an inch, and each
side of the hexagon was about one-tenth of an inch. An idea of the
minuteness of the work can be formed from the fact that a side of a
hexagon would be overcast with some nine or ten buttonhole stitches.

LACE-BARK TREE, a native of Jamaica, known botanically as _Lagetta lintearia_, from its native name lagetto. The inner bark consists of numerous concentric layers of interlacing fibres resembling in appearance lace. Collars and other articles of apparel have been made of the fibre, which is also used in the manufacture of whips, &c. The tree belongs to the natural order Thymelaeaceae, and is grown in hothouses in Britain.

LACEDAEMON, in historical times an alternative name of LACONIA (q.v.). Homer uses only the former, and in some passages seems to denote by it the Achaean citadel, the Therapnae of later times, in contrast to the lower town Sparta (G. Gilbert, _Studien zur altspartanischen Geschichte_, Göttingen, 1872, p. 34 foll.). It is described by the epithets [Greek: koilê] (hollow) and [Greek: kêtôessa] (spacious or hollow), and is probably connected etymologically with [Greek: lakkos], _lacus_, any hollow place. Lacedaemon is now the name of a separate department, which had in 1907 a population of 87,106.

LACÉPÈDE, BERNARD GERMAIN ÉTIENNE DE LA VILLE, COMTE DE (1756-1825), French naturalist, was born at Agen in Guienne on the 26th of December 1756. His education was carefully conducted by his father, and the early perusal of Buffon's _Natural History_ awakened his interest in that branch of study, which absorbed his chief attention. His leisure he devoted to music, in which, besides becoming a good performer on the piano and organ, he acquired considerable mastery of composition, two of his operas (which were never published) meeting with the high approval of Gluck; in 1781-1785 he also brought out in two volumes his _Poétique de la musique_. Meantime he wrote two treaties, _Essai sur l'électricité_ (1781) and _Physique générale et particulière_ (1782-1784), which gained him the friendship of Buffon, who in 1785 appointed him subdemonstrator in the Jardin du Roi, and proposed to him to become the continuator of his _Histoire naturelle_. This continuation was published under the titles _Histoire des quadrupèdes ovipares et des serpents_ (2 vols., 1788-1789) and _Histoire naturelle des reptiles_ (1789). After the Revolution Lacépède became a member of the legislative assembly, but during the Reign of Terror he left Paris, his life having become endangered by his disapproval of the massacres. When the Jardin du Roi was reorganized as the Jardin des Plantes, Lacépède was appointed to the chair allocated to the study of reptiles and fishes. In 1798 he published the first volume of _Histoire naturelle des poissons_, the fifth volume appearing in 1803; and in 1804 appeared his _Histoire des cétacés_. From this period till his death the part he took in politics prevented him making any further contribution of importance to science. In 1799 he became a senator, in 1801 president of the senate, in 1803 grand chancellor of the legion of honour, in 1804 minister of state, and at the Restoration in 1819 he was created a peer of France. He died at Épinay on the 6th of October 1825. During the latter part of his life he wrote _Histoire générale physique et civile de l'Europe_, published posthumously in 18 vols., 1826.

A collected edition of his works on natural history was published in
1826.

LACEWING-FLY, the name given to neuropterous insects of the families _Hemerobiidae_ and _Chrysopidae_, related to the ant-lions, scorpion-flies, &c., with long filiform antennae, longish bodies and two pairs of large similar richly veined wings. The larvae are short grubs beset with hair-tufts and tubercles. They feed upon _Aphidae_ or "green fly" and cover themselves with the emptied skins of their prey. Lacewing-flies of the genus _Chrysopa_ are commonly called golden-eye flies.

LA CHAISE, FRANÇOIS DE (1624-1709), father confessor of Louis XIV., was born at the château of Aix in Forey on the 25th of August 1624, being the son of Georges d'Aix, seigneur de la Chaise, and of Renée de Rochefort. On his mother's side he was a grandnephew of Père Coton, the confessor of Henry IV. He became a novice of the Society of Jesus before completing his studies at the university of Lyons, where, after taking the final vows, he lectured on philosophy to students attracted by his fame from all parts of France. Through the influence of Camille de Villeroy, archbishop of Lyons, Père de la Chaise was nominated in 1674 confessor of Louis XIV., who intrusted him during the lifetime of Harlay de Champvallon, archbishop of Paris, with the administration of the ecclesiastical patronage of the crown. The confessor united his influence with that of Madame de Maintenon to induce the king to abandon his liaison with Madame de Montespan. More than once at Easter he is said to have had a convenient illness which dispensed him from granting absolution to Louis XIV. With the fall of Madame de Montespan and the ascendancy of Madame de Maintenon his influence vastly increased. The marriage between Louis XIV. and Madame de Maintenon was celebrated in his presence at Versailles, but there is no reason for supposing that the subsequent coolness between him and Madame de Maintenon arose from his insistence on secrecy in this matter. During the long strife over the temporalities of the Gallican Church between Louis XIV. and Innocent XI. Père de la Chaise supported the royal prerogative, though he used his influence at Rome to conciliate the papal authorities. He must be held largely responsible for the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, but not for the brutal measures applied against the Protestants. He exercised a moderating influence on Louis XIV.'s zeal against the Jansenists, and Saint-Simon, who was opposed to him in most matters, does full justice to his humane and honourable character. Père de la Chaise had a lasting and unalterable affection for Fénelon, which remained unchanged by the papal condemnation of the _Maximes_. In spite of failing faculties he continued his duties as confessor to Louis XIV. to the end of his long life. He died on the 20th of January 1709. The cemetery of Père-la-Chaise in Paris stands on property acquired by the Jesuits in 1826, and not, as is often stated, on property personally granted to him.

See R. Chantelauze, _Le Père de la Chaize. Études d'histoire
religieuse_ (Paris and Lyons, 1859).

LA CHAISE-DIEU, a town of central France, in the department of Haute Loire, 29 m. N.N.W. of Le Puy by rail. Pop. (1906) 1203. The town, which is situated among fir and pine woods, 3500 ft. above the sea, preserves remains of its ramparts and some houses of the 14th and 15th centuries, but owes its celebrity to a church, which, after the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand, is the most remarkable Gothic building in Auvergne. The west façade, approached by a flight of steps, is flanked by two massive towers. The nave and aisles are of equal height and are separated from the choir by a stone rood screen. The choir, terminating in an apse with radiating chapel, contains the fine tomb and statue of Clement VI., carved stalls and some admirable Flemish tapestries of the early 16th century. There is a ruined cloister on the south side. The church, which dates from the 14th century, was built at the expense of Pope Clement VI., and belonged to a powerful Benedictine abbey founded in 1043. There are spacious monastic buildings of the 18th century. The abbey was formerly defended by fortifications, the chief survival of which is a lofty rectangular keep to the south of the choir. Trade in timber and the making of lace chiefly occupy the inhabitants of the town.

LA CHALOTAIS, LOUIS RENÉ DE CARADEUC DE (1701-1785), French jurist, was born at Rennes, on the 6th of March 1701. He was for 60 years procureur général at the parliament of Brittany. He was an ardent opponent of the Jesuits; drew up in 1761 for the parliament a memoir on the constitutions of the Order, which did much to secure its suppression in France; and in 1763 published a remarkable "Essay on National Education," in which he proposed a programme of scientific studies as a substitute for those taught by the Jesuits. The same year began the conflict between the Estates of Brittany and the governor of the province, the duc d'Aiguillon (q.v.). The Estates refused to vote the extraordinary imposts demanded by the governor in the name of the king. La Chalotais was the personal enemy of d'Aiguillon, who had served him an ill turn with the king, and when the parliament of Brittany sided with the Estates, he took the lead in its opposition. The parliament forbade by decrees the levy of imposts to which the Estates had not consented. The king annulling these decrees, all the members of the parliament but twelve resigned (October 1764 to May 1765). The government considered La Chalotais one of the authors of this affair. At this time the secretary of state who administered the affairs of the province, Louis Philypeaux, duc de la Vrillière, comte de Saint-Florentin (1705-1777), received two anonymous and abusive letters. La Chalotais was suspected of having written them, and three experts in handwriting declared that they were by him. The government therefore arrested him, his son and four other members of the parliament. The arrest made a great sensation. There was much talk of "despotism." Voltaire stated that the procureur général, in his prison of Saint Malo, was reduced, for lack of ink, to write his defence with a toothpick dipped in vinegar--which was apparently pure legend; but public opinion all over France was strongly aroused against the government. On the 16th of November 1765 a commission of judges was named to take charge of the trial. La Chalotais maintained that the trial was illegal; being procureur général he claimed the right to be judged by the parliament of Rennes, or failing this by the parliament of Bordeaux, according to the custom of the province. The judges did not dare to pronounce a condemnation on the evidence of experts in handwriting, and at the end of a year, things remained where they were at the first. Louis XV. then decided on a sovereign act, and brought the affair before his council, which without further formality decided to send the accused into exile. That expedient but increased the popular agitation; _philosophes_, members of the parliament, patriot Bretons and Jansenists all declared that La Chalotais was the victim of the personal hatred of the duc d'Aiguillon and of the Jesuits. The government at last gave way, and consented to recall the members of the parliament of Brittany who had resigned. This parliament, when it met again, after the formal accusation of the duc d'Aiguillon, demanded the recall of La Chalotais. This was accorded in 1775, and La Chalotais was allowed to transmit his office to his son. In this affair public opinion showed itself stronger than the absolutism of the king. The opposition to the royal power gained largely through it, and it may be regarded as one of the preludes to the revolution of 1789. La Chalotais, who was personally a violent, haughty and unsympathetic character, died at Rennes on the 12th of July 1785.

See, besides the _Comptes-Rendus des Constitutions des Jésuites_ and
the _Essai d'éducation nationale_, the _Mémoires de la Chalotais_ (3
vols., 1766-1767). Two works containing detailed bibliographies are
Marion, _La Bretagne et le duc d'Aiguillon_ (Paris, 1893), and B.
Pocquet, _Le Duc d'Aiguillon et La Chalotais_ (Paris, 1901). See also
a controversy between these two authors in the _Bulletin critique_ for
1902.

LA CHARITÉ, a town of central France in the department of Nièvre, on the right bank of the Loire, 17 m. N.N.W. of Nevers on the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée railway. Pop. (1906) 3990. La Charité possesses the remains of a fine Romanesque basilica, the church of Sainte-Croix, dating from the 11th and early 12th centuries. The plan consists of a nave, rebuilt at the end of the 17th century, transept and choir with ambulatory and side chapels. Surmounting the transept is an octagonal tower of one story, and a square Romanesque tower of much beauty flanks the main portal. There are ruins of the ramparts, which date from the 14th century. The manufacture of hosiery, boots and shoes, files and iron goods, lime and cement and woollen and other fabrics are among the industries; trade is chiefly in wood and iron.

La Charité owes its celebrity to its priory, which was founded in the
8th century and reorganized as a dependency of the abbey of Cluny in
1052. It became the parent of many priories and monasteries, some of
them in England and Italy. The possession of the town was hotly
contested during the wars of religion of the 16th century, at the end
of which its fortifications were dismantled.

LA CHAUSSÉE, PIERRE CLAUDE NIVELLE DE (1692-1754), French dramatist, was born in Paris in 1692. In 1731 he published an _Épître à Clio_, a didactic poem in defence of Lériget de la Faye in his dispute with Antoine Houdart de la Motte, who had maintained that verse was useless in tragedy. La Chaussée was forty years old before he produced his first play, _La Fausse Antipathie_ (1734). His second play, _Le Préjugé à la mode_ (1735) turns on the fear of incurring ridicule felt by a man in love with his own wife, a prejudice dispelled in France, according to La Harpe, by La Chaussée's comedy. _L'École des amis_ (1737) followed, and, after an unsuccessful attempt at tragedy in _Maximinien_, he returned to comedy in _Mélanide_ (1741). In _Mélanide_ the type known as _comédie larmoyante_ is fully developed. Comedy was no longer to provoke laughter, but tears. The innovation consisted in destroying the sharp distinction then existing between tragedy and comedy in French literature. Indications of this change had been already offered in the work of Marivaux, and La Chaussée's plays led naturally to the domestic drama of Diderot and of Sedaine. The new method found bitter enemies. Alexis Piron nicknames the author "_le Révérend Père Chaussée_," and ridiculed him in one of his most famous epigrams. Voltaire maintained that the _comédie larmoyante_ was a proof of the inability of the author to produce either of the recognized kinds of drama, though he himself produced a play of similar character in _L'Enfant prodigue_. The hostility of the critics did not prevent the public from shedding tears nightly over the sorrows of La Chaussée's heroine. _L'École des mères_ (1744) and _La Gouvernante_ (1747) form, with those already mentioned, the best of his work. The strict moral aims pursued by La Chaussée in his plays seem hardly consistent with his private preferences. He frequented the same gay society as did the comte de Caylus and contributed to the _Recueils de ces messieurs_. La Chaussée died on the 14th of May 1754. Villemain said of his style that he wrote prosaic verses with purity, while Voltaire, usually an adverse critic of his work, said he was "_un des premiers après ceux qui ont du génie_."

For the _comédie larmoyante_ see G. Lanson, _Nivelle de la Chaussée et
la comédie larmoyante_ (1887).

LACHES (from Anglo-French _lachesse_, negligence, from _lasche_, modern _lâche_, unloosed, slack), a term for slackness or negligence, used particularly in law to signify negligence on the part of a person in doing that which he is by law bound to do, or unreasonable lapse of time in asserting a right, seeking relief, or claiming a privilege. Laches is frequently a bar to a remedy which might have been had if prosecuted in proper time. Statutes of limitation specify the time within which various classes of actions may be brought. Apart from statutes of limitation courts of equity will often refuse relief to those who have allowed unreasonable time to elapse in seeking it, on the principle _vigilantibus ac non dormientibus jura subveniunt_.

LACHINE, an incorporated town in Jacques Cartier county, Quebec, Canada, 8 m. W. of Montreal, on Lake St Louis, an expansion of the St Lawrence river, and at the upper end of the Lachine canal. Pop. (1901) 5561. It is a station on the Grand Trunk railway and a port of call for steamers plying between Montreal and the Great Lakes. It is a favourite summer resort for the people of Montreal. It was named in 1669 in mockery of its then owner, Robert Cavelier de la Salle (1643-1687), who dreamed of a westward passage to China. In 1689 it was the scene of a terrible massacre of the French by the Iroquois.

LACHISH, a town of great importance in S. Palestine, often mentioned in the Tell el-Amarna tablets. It was destroyed by Joshua for joining the league against the Gibeonites (Joshua x. 31-33) and assigned to the tribe of Judah (xv. 39). Rehoboam fortified it (2 Chron. xi. 9). King Amaziah having fled hither, was here murdered by conspirators (2 Kings xiv. 19). Sennacherib here conducted a campaign (2 Kings xviii. 13) during which Hezekiah endeavoured to make terms with him: the campaign is commemorated by bas-reliefs found in Nineveh, now in the British Museum (see G. Smith's _History of Sennacherib_, p. 69). It was one of the last cities that resisted Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. xxxiv. 7). The meaning of Micah's denunciation (i. 13) of the city is unknown. The _Onomasticon_ places it 7 m. from Eleutheropolis on the S. road, which agrees with the generally received identification, Tell el-Hesi, an important mound excavated for the Palestine Exploration Fund by Petrie and Bliss, 1890-1893. The name is preserved in a small Roman site in the neighbourhood, Umm Lakis, which probably represents a later dwelling-place of the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of the city.

See W. M. Flinders Petrie, _Tell el-Hesy_, and F. J. Bliss, _A Mound
of many Cities_, both published by the Palestine Exploration Fund.
(R. A. S. M.)

LACHMANN, KARL KONRAD FRIEDRICH WILHELM (1793-1851), German philologist and critic, was born at Brunswick on the 4th of March 1793. He studied at Leipzig and Göttingen, devoting himself mainly to philological studies. In 1815 he joined the Prussian army as a volunteer _chasseur_ and accompanied his detachment to Paris, but did not encounter the enemy. In 1816 he became an assistant master in the Friedrich Werder gymnasium at Berlin, and a _privat-docent_ at the university. The same summer he became one of the principal masters in the Friedrichs-Gymnasium of Königsberg, where he assisted his colleague, the Germanist Friedrich Karl Köpke (1785-1865) with his edition of Rudolf von Ems' _Barlaam und Josaphat_ (1818), and also assisted his friend in a contemplated edition of the works of Walther von der Vogelweide. In January 1818 he became professor extraordinarius of classical philology in the university of Königsberg, and at the same time began to lecture on Old German grammar and the Middle High German poets. He devoted himself during the following seven years to an extraordinarily minute study of those subjects, and in 1824 obtained leave of absence in order that he might search the libraries of middle and south Germany for further materials. In 1825 Lachmann was nominated extraordinary professor of classical and German philology in the university of Berlin (ordinary professor 1827); and in 1830 he was admitted a member of the Academy of Sciences. The remainder of his laborious and fruitful life as an author and a teacher was uneventful. He died on the 13th of March 1851.

Lachmann, who was the translator of the first volume of P. E. Müller's
_Sagabibliothek des skandinavischen Altertums_ (1816), is a figure of
considerable importance in the history of German philology (see Rudolf
von Raumer, _Geschichte der germanischen Philologie_, 1870). In his
"Habilitationsschrift" _Über die ursprüngliche Gestalt des Gedichts
der Nibelunge Not_ (1816), and still more in his review of Hagen's
_Nibelungen_ and Benecke's _Bonerius_, contributed in 1817 to the
_Jenaische Literaturzeitung_ he had already laid down the rules of
textual criticism and elucidated the phonetic and metrical principles
of Middle High German in a manner which marked a distinct advance in
that branch of investigation. The rigidly scientific character of his
method becomes increasingly apparent in the _Auswahl aus den
hochdeutschen Dichtern des dreizehnten Jahrhunderts_ (1820), in the
edition of Hartmann's _Iwein_ (1827), in those of Walther von der
Vogelweide (1827) and Wolfram von Eschenbach (1833), in the papers
"Über das Hildebrandslied," "Über althochdeutsche Betonung und
Verskunst," "Über den Eingang des Parzivals," and "Über drei
Bruchstücke niederrheinischer Gedichte" published in the
_Abhandlungen_ of the Berlin Academy, and in _Der Nibelunge Not und
die Klage_ (1826, 11th ed., 1892), which was followed by a critical
commentary in 1836. Lachmann's _Betrachtungen über Homer's Ilias_,
first published in the _Abhandlungen_ of the Berlin Academy in 1837
and 1841, in which he sought to show that the _Iliad_ consists of
sixteen independent "lays" variously enlarged and interpolated, have
had considerable influence on modern Homeric criticism (see HOMER),
although his views are no longer accepted. His smaller edition of the
New Testament appeared in 1831, 3rd ed. 1846; the larger, in two
volumes, in 1842-1850. The plan of Lachmann's edition, explained by
himself in the _Stud. u. Krit._ of 1830, is a modification of the
unaccomplished project of Bentley. It seeks to restore the most
ancient reading current in Eastern MSS., using the consent of the
Latin authorities (Old Latin and Greek Western Uncials) as the main
proof of antiquity of a reading where the oldest Eastern authorities
differ. Besides _Propertius_ (1816), Lachmann edited _Catullus_
(1829); _Tibullus_ (1829); _Genesius_ (1834); _Terentianus Maurus_
(1836); _Babrius_ (1845); _Avianus_ (1845); _Gaius_ (1841-1842); the
_Agrimensores Romani_ (1848-1852); _Lucilius_ (edited after his death
by Vahlen, 1876); and _Lucretius_ (1850). The last, which was the main
occupation of the closing years of his life, from 1845, was perhaps
his greatest achievement, and has been characterized by Munro as "a
work which will be a landmark for scholars as long as the Latin
language continues to be studied." Lachmann also translated
Shakespeare's sonnets (1820) and _Macbeth_ (1829).

See M. Hertz, _Karl Lachmann, eine Biographie_ (1851), where a full
list of Lachmann's works is given; F. Leo, _Rede zur Säcularfeier K.
Lachmanns_ (1893); J. Grimm, biography in _Kleine Schriften_; W.
Scherer in _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_, xvii., and J. E. Sandys,
_Hist. of Classical Scholarship_, iii. (1908), pp. 127-131.

LACINIUM, PROMUNTURIUM (mod. Capo delle Colonne), 7 m S.E. of Crotona (mod. Cotrone); the easternmost point of Bruttii (mod. Calabria). On the cape still stands a single column of the temple erected to Hera Lacinia, which is said to have been fairly complete in the 16th century, but to have been destroyed to build the episcopal palace at Cotrone. It is a Doric column with capital, about 27 ft. in height. Remains of marble roof-tiles have been seen on the spot (Livy xlii. 3) and architectural fragments were excavated in 1886-1887 by the Archaeological Institute of America. The sculptures found were mostly buried again, but a few fragments, some decorative terra-cottas and a dedicatory inscription to Hera of the 6th century B.C., in private possession at Cotrone, are described by F. von Duhn in _Notizie degli scavi_, 1897, 343 seq. The date of the erection of the temple may be given as 480-440 B.C.; it is not recorded by any ancient writer.

See R. Koldewey and O. Puchstein, _Die griechischen Tempel in
Unteritalien und Sicilien_ (Berlin 1899, 41).

LA CIOTAT, a coast town of south-eastern France in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône, on the west shore of the Bay of La Ciotat, 26 m. S.E. of Marseilles by rail. Pop. (1906) 10,562. The port is easily accessible and well sheltered. The large shipbuilding yards and repairing docks of the Messageries Maritimes Company give employment to between 2000 and 3000 workmen. Fishing and an active coasting trade are carried on; the town is frequented for sea-bathing. La Ciotat was in ancient times the port of the neighbouring town of _Citharista_ (now the village of Ceyreste).

LA CLOCHE, JAMES DE ["Prince James Stuart"] (1644?-1669), a character who was brought into the history of England by Lord Acton in 1862 (_Home and Foreign Review_, i. 146-174: "The Secret History of Charles II."). From information discovered by Father Boero in the archives of the Jesuits in Rome, Lord Acton averred that Charles II., when a lad at Jersey, had a natural son, James. The evidence follows. On the 2nd of April 1668, as the register of the Jesuit House of Novices at Rome attests, "there entered Jacobus de la Cloche." His baggage was exiguous, his attire was clerical. He is described as "from the island of Jersey, under the king of England, aged 24." He possessed two documents in French, purporting to have been written by Charles II. at Whitehall, on the 25th of September 1665, and on the 7th of February 1667. In both Charles acknowledges James to be his natural son, he styles him "James de la Cloche de Bourg du Jersey," and avers that to recognize him publicly "would imperil the peace of the kingdoms"--why is not apparent. A third certificate of birth, in Latin, undated, was from Christina of Sweden, who declares that James, previously a Protestant, has been received into the church of Rome at Hamburg (where in 1667-1668 she was residing) on the 29th of July 1667. The next paper purports to be a letter from Charles II. of August 3/13 to Oliva, general of the Jesuits. The king writes, in French, that he has long wished to be secretly received into the church. He therefore desires that James, his son by a young lady "of the highest quality," and born to him when he was about sixteen, should be ordained a priest, come to England and receive him. Charles alludes to previous attempts of his own to be secretly admitted (1662). James must be sent secretly to London at once, and Oliva must say nothing to Christina of Sweden (then meditating a journey to Rome), and must never write to Charles except when James carries the letter. Charles next writes on August 29/September 9. He is most anxious that Christina should not meet James; if she knows Charles's design of changing his creed she will not keep it secret, and Charles will infallibly lose his life. With this letter there is another, written when the first had been sealed. Charles insists that James must not be accompanied, as novices were, when travelling, by a Jesuit socius or guardian. Charles's wife and mother have just heard that this is the rule, but the rule must be broken. James, who is to travel as "Henri de Rohan," must not come by way of France. Oliva will supply him with funds. On the back of this letter Oliva has written the draft of his brief reply to Charles (from Leghorn, October 14, 1668). He merely says that the bearer, a French gentleman (James spoke only French), will inform the king that his orders have been executed. Besides these two letters is one from Charles to James, of date August 4/14. It is addressed to "Le Prince Stuart," though none of Charles's bastards was allowed to bear the Stuart name. James is told that he may desert the clerical profession if he pleases. In that case "you may claim higher titles from us than the duke of Monmouth." (There was no higher title save prince of Wales!) If Charles and his brother, the duke of York, die childless, "the kingdoms belong to you, and parliament cannot legally oppose you, unless as, at present, they can only elect Protestant kings." This letter ought to have opened the eyes of Lord Acton and other historians who accept the myth of James de la Cloche. Charles knew that the crown of England was not elective, that there was no Exclusion Act, and that there were legal heirs if he and his brother died without issue. The last letter of Charles is dated November 18/28, and purports to have been brought from England to Oliva by James de la Cloche on his return to Rome. It reveals the fact that Oliva, despite Charles's orders, did send James by way of France, with a _socius_ or guardian whom he was to pick up in France on his return to England. Charles says that James is to communicate certain matters to Oliva, and come back at once. Oliva is to give James all the money he needs, and Charles will later make an ample donation to the Jesuits. He acknowledges a debt to Oliva of £800, to be paid in six months. The reader will remark that the king has never paid a penny to James or to Oliva, and that Oliva has never communicated directly with Charles. The truth is that all of Charles's letters are forgeries. This is certain because in all he writes frequently as if his mother, Henrietta Maria, were in London, and constantly in company with him. Now she had left England for France in 1665, and to England she never returned. As the letters--including that to "Prince Stuart"--are all forged, it is clear that de la Cloche was an impostor. His aim had been to get money from Oliva, and to pretend to travel to England, meaning to enjoy himself. He did not quite succeed, for Oliva sent a socius with him into France. His precautions to avoid a meeting with Christina of Sweden were necessary. She knew no more of him than did Charles, and would have exposed him.

The name of James de la Cloche appears no more in documents. He reached Rome in December 1668, and in January a person calling himself "Prince James Stuart" appears in Naples, accompanied by a _socius_ styling himself a French knight of Malta. Both are on their way to England, but Prince James falls ill and stays in Naples, while his companion departs. The knight of Malta may be a Jesuit. In Naples, Prince James marries a girl of no position, and is arrested on suspicion of being a coiner. To his confessors (he had two in succession) he says that he is a son of Charles II. Our sources are the despatches of Kent, the English agent at Naples, and the _Lettere_, vol. iii., of Vincenzo Armanni (1674), who had his information from one of the confessors of the "Prince." The viceroy of Naples communicated with Charles II., who disowned the impostor; Prince James, however, was released, and died at Naples in August 1669, leaving a wild will, in which he claims for his son, still unborn, the "apanage" of Monmouth or Wales, "which it is usual to bestow on natural sons of the king." The son lived till about 1750, a penniless pretender, and writer of begging letters.

It is needless to pursue Lord Acton's conjectures about later mysterious appearances of James de la Cloche at the court of Charles, or to discuss the legend that his mother was a lady of Jersey--or a sister of Charles! The Jersey myths may be found in _The Man of the Mask_ (1908), by Monsignor Barnes, who argued that James was the man in the iron mask (see IRON MASK). Later Monsignor Barnes, who had observed that the letter of Charles to Prince James Stuart is a forgery, noticed the impossibility that Charles, in 1668, should constantly write of his mother as resident in London, which she left for ever in 1665.

Who de la Cloche really was it is impossible to discover, but he was a bold and successful swindler, who took in, not only the general of the Jesuits, but Lord Acton and a generation of guileless historians. (A. L.)

LA CONDAMINE, CHARLES MARIE DE (1701-1774), French geographer and mathematician, was born at Paris on the 28th of January 1701. He was trained for the military profession, but turned his attention to science and geographical exploration. After taking part in a scientific expedition in the Levant (1731), he became a member with Louis Godin and Pierre Bouguer of the expedition sent to Peru in 1735 to determine the length of a degree of the meridian in the neighbourhood of the equator. His associations with his principals were unhappy; the expedition was beset by many difficulties, and finally La Condamine separated from the rest and made his way from Quito down the Amazon, ultimately reaching Cayenne. His was the first scientific exploration of the Amazon. He returned to Paris in 1744 and published the results of his measurements and travels with a map of the Amazon in _Mém. de l'académie des sciences_, 1745 (English translation 1745-1747). On a visit to Rome La Condamine made careful measurements of the ancient buildings with a view to a precise determination of the length of the Roman foot. The journal of his voyage to South America was published in Paris in 1751. He also wrote in favour of inoculation, and on various other subjects, mainly connected with his work in South America. He died at Paris on the 4th of February 1774.

LACONIA (Gr. [Greek: Lakônikê]), the ancient name of the south-eastern district of the Peloponnese, of which Sparta was the capital. It has an area of some 1,048,000 acres, slightly greater than that of Somersetshire, and consists of three well-marked zones running N. and S. The valley of the Eurotas, which occupies the centre, is bounded W. by the chain of Taygetus (mod. Pentedaktylon, 7900 ft.), which starts from the Arcadian mountains on the N., and at its southern extremity forms the promontory of Taenarum (Cape Matapan). The eastern portion of Laconia consists of a far more broken range of hill country, rising in Mt. Parnon to a height of 6365 ft. and terminating in the headland of Malea. The range of Taygetus is well watered and was in ancient times covered with forests which afforded excellent hunting to the Spartans, while it had also large iron mines and quarries of an inferior bluish marble, as well as of the famous _rosso antico_ of Taenarum. Far poorer are the slopes of Parnon, consisting for the most part of barren limestone uplands scantily watered. The Eurotas valley, however, is fertile, and produces at the present day maize, olives, oranges and mulberries in great abundance. Laconia has no rivers of importance except the Eurotas and its largest tributary the Oenus (mod. Kelefína). The coast, especially on the east, is rugged and dangerous. Laconia has few good harbours, nor are there any islands lying off its shores with the exception of Cythera (Cerigo), S. of Cape Malea. The most important towns, besides Sparta and Gythium, were Bryseae, Amyclae and Pharis in the Eurotas plain, Pellana and Belbina on the upper Eurotas, Sellasia on the Oenus, Caryae on the Arcadian frontier, Prasiae, Zarax and Epidaurus Limera on the east coast, Geronthrae on the slopes of Parnon, Boeae, Asopus, Helos, Las and Teuthrone on the Laconian Gulf, and Hippola, Messa and Oetylus on the Messenian Gulf.